Wordpress is an amazing tool. It is easy to install, intuitive to use, and customizable. Themes are a big part of that customization, which is why a google search for ‘Wordpress Themes’ returns 45 million results!
I’m not a designer, nor a web programmer by trade or training, so when I initially started this blog I knew that I would be using a theme that someone else built. Initially I started with Pink and Yellow media’s Typograph theme.
This is a really nice theme, entirely made up of CSS elements and typographical elements. I liked it, but it didn’t work as well in Internet Explorer as I wanted it to, so I kept looking.
The next theme I tried (currently in use as of this posting) was Allan Cole’s Neutica, also a simple, typograph-driven design. After some tweaking to suit my needs, I was fairly happy with it. It works well in both Internet Explorer and Firefox, and is easy to understand and customize for someone with very limited CSS experience.
The good thing about both of these themes is that they really helped me understand what I want, what features of Wordpress I want to take advantage of and what features I don’t care as much about. The problem with both of these themes is the same. They aren’t mine. They don’t really represent me or my limited design sensibility in any significant way. In order for me to fully own this blog, I need to design my own theme. I expect to produce a few failures along the way, and take some elements that work from these two themes, and others that I find along the way.
Luckily, I have a graphic designer in house who can tell me when I am doing something truly horrifying. And worst case, I can draw upon the Fine Arts degree that I pursued during college studies, then abandoned like an article of clothing upon graduation. With these tools, and google serving as an unpaid consultant, I should be able to come up with something.
2 Comments
I’m going through the same thing on my own site, and while I have a pretty strong background in both web design and programming, designing for yourself can be a whole different game. It’s one thing to design for a client, but when you have to come up with something that represents ‘you’, it becomes much more difficult.
Right now I’m in the same spot. I’m using a pretty basic css theme and working through the features of wordpress to figure out what features/functionality I want and don’t want. Once I sort that out I hope to have a better feel for what the site, and its design, will ultimately become.
Let me know if you figure out the formula for design that represents you. We’ll start a new company.
in the meantime, I think I’ll be able to come up with something that represents me… at least for that moment… and go with it.
Fortunately you have the ability to ad-lib a bit better, since you know the instrument more deeply than I do. You may see that as an unfortunate though, since you also know how much more you can accomplish with the right coding.